


Strangers on a Train

by thatjutsu



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-21
Updated: 2014-02-22
Packaged: 2018-01-13 07:46:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1218175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatjutsu/pseuds/thatjutsu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Temari, a lawyer, rides the same two trains home every evening. One day she notices a man sleeping sitting up on the train. The man, Shikamaru, is new to town and just started his new job as an engineer. The pair see each other again the next day and strike up a conversation. </p><p>This fic contains friendships between Ino and Temari as well as sibling interactions and childhood friendships.</p><p>I originally wrote this on ff.net but I'm moving everything over to here. Currently General Audiences but may move up in the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 1

Every day it was the same routine. Take the Blue line to the end then transfer to the Green and finally get off three stops later. Every day it was the same people doing the same thing; mother's taking their children to daycare, businessmen on their way to work. They got off at the same stops never taking the time to speak to anyone.

  


A blonde woman sat alone a book in her hand. She wore a dark gray pant suit with a red silk shirt. Her shoulder length sand colored hair was pulled into a low ponytail and her face held a focused expression. 

  


The train came to a stop and she finally broke her concentration from the book. It wasn't time to get off just yet. Before she had the chance to continue reading a sleeping figure caught her attention, she hadn't seen him on the train before. His head was down causing a spikey ponytail to point towards her. She attempted to hold back an amused chuckle. 

  


The sound must have woken him because he looked up and caught her staring. The right side of his mouth curled into a smirk. His legs had had previously been stretched into the aisle were now pulled close to the bench. He scooted back in the seat, his arms still crossed over his olive green button-up. The woman smirked back towards him closing the book in her hands. They continued staring at each other for a few minutes before the train stopped again. She broke eye contact realizing this was her stop. She gathered her things quickly before giving the man a quick wink and getting off the train. 

  


"Well isn't she something," he muttered under his breath. Maybe this new job would be worth all this time on the trains. He sighed and stretched out again putting his arms behind his head. I wonder if she rides the train everyday, he thought remembering her smirk. He wasn't the type to initiate interactions, he was much more laid back than that. He wondered if she would be the one to speak first, and he kind of hoped that she would, if he had to it would be troublesome. The train lurched to a halt, jolting him from his thoughts. The man looked up, it was his stop. He would be on the train again tomorrow and he wished she would be too.


	2. Day 2

The woman sat in the same seat the next day like she always did. She looked around the train for the sleeping man from yesterday, only he was nowhere to be found. She let out a sigh before pulling out her book.

 

She had thought about him the entire evening prior. His dark brown eyes had captivated her. Once she had returned to her apartment her two younger brothers had noticed something different and pestered her with questions until she locked herself in her room. She was determined to see him again and this had distracted her at work and she'd hardly gotten anything done. While she was normally a confident person, she didn't know what she would say to him if she did see him again.

 

The brakes on the train screeched as they came to a halt; people who were standing swaying with the movement. She checked a small golden watch for the time; they must have been about a quarter of the way through the Blue line. She looked up again and saw him board the train sitting across from her just like the day before.

 

This time it was his turn to give her a wink putting his hands behind his head. She restrained a smile and turned it into a smirk. She was firm in her plan of speaking to him first, so she calmed her mind before speaking, "I haven't seen you on the train before yesterday. Are you new to the area?"

 

"Yeah. I just got a new job around here," he answered her. He was slightly surprised, but pleased that she had been the one to initiate the beginnings of their conversation.

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow "What do you do?"

"I'm an engineer," he shrugged. "What about you?"

"You must be pretty smart to be an engineer. I'm a lawyer."

"Well that's another job that requires you to be smart," he nodded in her direction. "I'm Shikamaru by the way."

"Temari."

The speaker came on overhead announcing that it was the end of the Blue Line. Both of them would be transferring to the Green.There was about five minutes in between the trains so they waited quietly on the platform. They knew little about each other but before one of them had the chance to speak the next train had arrived. The pair sat in the same spots as usual, directly across from each other and right next to the doors.

  
"So tell me about yourself," she wanted to know more about him but couldn't think of any other way to ask.

  
"How about I ask you a question and you answer it and get to ask me a question," he suggested. Temari nodded. "So how long have you been a lawyer?"

"About six years. What made you want to become an engineer?"

  
"My father was one too, so I guess it's a family thing. Do you have any family?"

  
"Just my two brothers. Do you have siblings?" the blonde adjusted her bag next to her as the train stopped for the first time. Two more stops and she would have to leave.

  
"I'm an only child. Are you guys close?"

"Well we share an apartment, so yeah. What about you and your parents?"

  
"We're pretty close. I try to see my mom as much as possible." He tried to think of a question she wouldn't expect. "What's your favorite animal?"

 

Well that's different, Temari thought. "Weasels," she smiled. "What's yours?"

  
"My favorite animal? Probably deer." The train stopped again before he had the chance to ask the next question. One more stop and he would have to wait until tomorrow to see her again. "Favorite color?"

  
"Hmmmm... Probably purple or red. What do you like to do for fun?"

 

"I like watching the clouds, and playing chess. What about you?"

  
"What I do for fun? Hmmm." She paused. "Well I guess I like t-" she was cut off by the halting of the train. "I guess you'll have to find out tomorrow." She gave a quick wink before exiting the train.


	3. Day 2 - Temari

Temari had her bag over one shoulder as she climbed the stairs that would lead her to the street. She smiled the  
entire walk back to her apartment. The blonde figured both of her brothers would be home so she tried to erase the glow of  
happiness around her.

 

She was right, both of them were there and they had noticed the glow. A red head sat at the small island in the kitchen a heart  
shaped tattoo on the left side of his forehead. He had been aimlessly stirring a cup of tea until his elder sister had come home. Meanwhile a larger brunet dressed in all black had been sitting on the couch flipping through channles on the TV. She avoided eye  
contact but gave them a greeting. "Gaara, Kankuro, how were your days?" she nodded to them.

  
"I got an interview at a new bar later tonight," Kankuro stated blandly. He was the only one of his siblings who wasn't employed at the moment.

  
"That's good to hear," Temari smiled at her younger brother. "Maybe now you'll get off the couch."

  
Gaara huffed out a laugh at his older brother. All Kankuro had been doing was watch TV while Temari was a successful lawyer and  
Gaara was one of he youngest CEOs of the era. Kankuro gave the other man a glare before turning his attention back to Temari and why she looked so uncharacteristically happy tonight. She had been like that the day before as well and he was suspicious that  
something was going on. " So Tem," he started. "Anything interesting happen at work today?"

  
"Not really. Just the same things as every other day. I've been working on a merger with the rest of my team and we've got a meeting with the other side in a few days."

  
"Riiiiight," he wasn't buying it. Gaara glanced over and immediately understood the situation. She was talking to someone and wasn't  
telling them. Even though Temari was the eldest of her siblings both of her brothers were very protective over her.

  
"Anyone new on your team?" Gaara asked hoping to get some information out of her.

  
"No. It's the same five people like always."

  
"Anyone new in the office?" Kankuro questioned further.

  
"No." She knew where this was headed and she didn't want them butting in on her private life. She barely knew Shikamaru anyway.  
They'd only talked once and now her brothers were prying. She went to the fridge to look for a take-out menu. She found one after  
about a minute of searching. She pulled one down and handed it to Gaara along with her phone. "How about you order us some  
food? I'm going to take a shower."

  
The ginger nodded and began dialing. Kankuro watched his sister walk down the hallway towards her room. Once he heard the door  
click he jumped from the couch and ran to his brother. "She has to be seeing someone. No way Temari would look that happy unless  
she either killed someone in the courtroom or she's been seeing someone."

  
Gaara looked towards the other. "I think you're right. But I also think that she won't tell us anything if we just ask questions." He  
looked down at the phone in his hands. Kankuro's eyes went wide and he snatched the phone away and began snooping through it.  
The brothers had become so engrossed in looking through her phone trying to find some shred of evidence that she was seeing  
someone that they had failed to notice the shower had been turned off.

  
"Is the food here yet?" Temari asked walking back into the kitchen towel drying her hair.

  
They looked up and choked, setting her phone down hoping she hadn't noticed. Unfortunately for them, she had. "Did you go  
through my phone?!" She didn't care about the food now. Were her brothers that concerned about her private life that they went  
snooping through her phone?! Before she had the chance to yell at them further the bell rang. She grabbed her purse to get some  
cash for the take-out. She answered the door and gave the delivery boy the money in exchange for a large brown bag. She set it all  
down on the counter grabbed her order and walked back to her room. She wasn't going to be speaking to them for a while. At least  
not until they had apologized.

  
Gaara and Kankuro sat at the island to eat. "We'll just apologize in the morning when she's cooled down," Kankuro suggested.

  
"I think we should apologize now."

  
"Are you crazy?! I don't want to get a chair thrown at me today."

  
"Good point. Are we still going to try and figure out who he is?"

  
"Of course."


	4. Day 2 - Shikamaru

Shikamaru had walked back to his apartment alone. He had moved to the city a few weeks prior and still wasn't quite settled in. He  
reached into his pocket and fiddled with his keys the last few meters to his building. He kept his key ready during the three floor walkup and slipped them easily into the lock. He opened the door to his dark apartment and let out a sigh before walking inside.

  
The tall man set the keys on the countertop and loosened his tie. Four boxes sat in the hallway still sealed with packing tape. He  
hadn't finished unpacking because it was extra work and he wasn't about to put effort into unpacking after getting off work. I'll do it  
on a weekend, he thought.

  
He pulled a TV dinner out of the freezer, put it in the microwave and pressed a few buttons. After it started to cook he started his  
computer. The desktop had just finished loading when the microwave beeped off. Shikamaru sat down to eat his dinner with his  
laptop. He had four new emails. Two were from his mother worrying about him; one was from his best friend Choji just wanting to see  
how the city was and to talk. The last one was from another childhood friend, Ino. She was telling him that he needed to go out and  
have fun, meet new people. Shikamaru wasn't going to tell her yet, but he might have met someone worth meeting. He let out a  
yawn. It was still early but he always seemed tired. Ino and his mother would call him lazy. He answered their emails, letting his mother  
know that everything was going to be fine, promising Ino he wouldn't just sit in his apartment. He talked to Choji about food and how  
nothing here compared to the barbeque place back home.

  
After watching a little TV Shikamaru ended up towards the back of his small apartment. He undressed in silence before turning the  
shower on. He let his dark hair down from its ponytail and it fell around his shoulders. He moved quickly in the shower sleep tugging  
at his eyes. The long day was finally over. He lay in his bed, hands tucked behind his head. When he closed his eyes he saw her,  
golden hair and bright teal eyes smirking at him with a look like she knew more than he did. He half-smiled, eyes still closed and sleep  
overcame him.


	5. Day 3

Shikamaru fell asleep on the train and waited for her to get on. His hands were tucked behind his head, legs outstretched. He was still sondly asleep when the speaker came on announcing the end of the line. His eyes rose lazily realizing that he needed to get off. Groggily he stood giving a yawn before stepping on the platform.

  
He rubbed at his eyes and looked around. Temari was nowhere to be found. His mind began to wander as it always seemed to do when he wasn't challenged mentally. "Where is she?" he whispered to himself. Had he really been looking forward to seeing her that much? He sighed again as the train for the Green line pulled up and he stepped onboard. The rest of the train ride he contemplated what would happen in their next encounter. Would he be the first to say something or would she? What would they talk about? Would he ask her out for coffee? His mind raced and it was his stop before he knew it.

  
He walked home knowing his apartment would still be empty and that there would still be boxes left to unpack. Once inside he repeated the same process he had been doing days prior making dinner answering emails. Ino's email today was particularly interesting and caught him off guard. She wrote him telling him that she would be in town consulting on a big case and she wanted to stay with him. He glanced over at the boxes knowing she would yell at him if they weren't unpacked before she got there. He sighed exasperatedly and told her she could stay with him while she was there. He finished his evening routine by laying in bed realizing all the work he would have to do before his childhood friend came to stay.

  
Temari sat at one end of the board table. She was supposed to have left the office several hours ago. Earlier her coworkers would have even considered her pleasurable to be around today. Now however, she was back to her typical hostile self. 

The blonde was leaned back in her chair, arms folded and legs crossed. She took a deep breath, "One of the sides is going to have to budge. And neither team wants to give any leeway." The room had spent the last fifteen minutes in silence. Temari had been strategizing and she knew her team trusted her, and now she had a plan to give them the edge. She stood up brushing her hands down her pencil skirt to smooth any creases and began to speak.

  
She radiated confidence and had the undivided attention of the room. She was able to spin a story that would cause her team to have less in the short-term but in the long-run it would be her bosses that would be happy. After several hours of deliberation they finally came to an agreement. The visiting groups of lawyers left the board room feeling that they had won be she knew otherwise. Temari went back to her office and packed up her belongings and answered a few emails before leaving the office to go to the train.

  
Temari knew he would be on the train this late, their regular train had run hours ago. She had secretly hoped that he would be on it having waited for her. Unfortunately her life was like a romance novel that she would read from time to time. Instead of seeing him in his usual spot asleep the space was empty. She sighed lightly before pulling a book out of her bag and began to read.


	6. Day 4

Ino would arrive in a few days. The case that she told him she was consulting on was starting to make headlines. She had followed in the footsteps of her father becoming an interrogation specialist for the FBI. Sometimes he worried about her safety but he knew she could take care of herself. They had grown up together after all; Ino, Chouji and he might as well be siblings rather than friends.

He glanced at the boxes before leaving for work knowing that he should unpack at least one of them. At work he found himself bored sitting at his desk with a project that wasn’t nearly as difficult or interesting as he thought it would be when he took it on. He started dozing off sitting in his chair leaning on the desk. He would have gladly slept until the end of the day if a coworker hadn’t nudged him to remind him that they had a meeting.

He moved slowly to the big office. Everyone else was already there and all the seats had been taken long ago. He and twenty or so people stood along the perimeter of the room. Shikamaru leaned against a wall and started to fall asleep again. Nudged again he was reminded that this was the last thing he had to do today. He would get to go home as soon as the meeting was over. That reminder managed to keep him awake the rest of the meeting.

Once the meeting was finished he went back to his desk to pack things up and leave. On the way out he remembered the blonde on the train. _Temari._ He found his drowsiness dissipating as he took the two flights of stairs down to the subway.

***

Temari’s day had started by telling her brothers that they shouldn’t go through her phone and that she needed her privacy. Her brothers apologized profusely know if they didn’t if would be more than her just talking to them. Once she was back in her room getting dress for work the pair tried to work out a plan as to how they were going to figure out who this guy was. “Well where does she go every day?” Kankuro asked Gaara.

“She goes to work and she comes back here. She doesn’t have much time to socialize,” Gaara answered.

“She had to have met him _somewhere_ it’s not like there’s any big cases she’s working on.”

Just as Kankuro finished speaking the TV began broadcasting a ‘This Just In’ type of news report. Authorities had recently apprehended a suspect in the recent outbreak of murders that had been sweeping through the city. The killer didn’t have a type and didn’t seem to have any sort of motive either. Victims ranged from call girls to high ranking officials. The brothers glanced at each other knowing this was the sort of thing their sister would try to get involved in. She walked out of her room adjusting the blazer of her black pantsuit and their attention went to her. “So Sis,” Kankuro started, “Have you heard anything about the dirtbag they’ve arrested for all those murders?”

“I may have been contacted by the DA about joining their team temporarily for that case.”

“Are you going to take it?” the younger brother asked.

“I’m considering it. I’m going to speak with the partners about it today since my contract is going to be up soon.” She knew they were worried for her but she also knew that she could handle anything that was thrown her way. She wished them a good day and told Kankuro to wear less eyeliner to his job interview that day before leaving for work.

Since her last project had just finished up with the merger she was scheduled to have a meeting with the partners of the firm today and discuss her next case. Once she had debriefed them on what happened in the merger they started to negotiate her new contract with them. “We’d like to have you with us for the next five years and are willing to extend your current contract as well as adding some benefits.”

“We’re also open to the option of you becoming partner in that timeframe as well.”

That was news to her. Sure it was something she had dreamed about but she didn’t think it would be something to happen this early in her career. She wanted to be partner but she also wanted to work with the DA. “That sounds wonderful,” she began, “but I would like to add some conditions to my contract as well.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“I’d like to work with the DA on this high profile case.” The partners nodded thinking that if she won her case like she always did and then came back to their firm that it would make them look good. “I would also like to be able to work with them on any cases that they request my assistance with. A raise would be necessary as well considering I’ve already been with this firm for five years.” They agreed with her and said they’d have the contract written up in the next few weeks. She smiled, standing to shake their hands and leave.

Once back in her own office she called the Prosecutor’s office and told them the good news. She would be joining them for their tough cases. They told her that the FBI was being brought in and they had a specialist who would be leading the interrogation. “Apparently she’s the best in the world. There isn’t a person she hasn’t been able to crack.”

“Then it sounds like we’ll be a good match,” Temari said.

She finished the last pieces of paperwork for the merger and told her team that she wouldn’t be with the firm for a while as she was consulting with the DA. Her day was over and things couldn’t get any better. She walked out of the building and headed towards the train. His face appeared in her head and she smiled knowing it was going to get better because he would be there. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So this is the most current chapter of Strangers on a Train. From now on I'll be posting all of the new chapters here and not on ff.net

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thank you for reading! I'm going to be posting all the chapters on here today and then then new one that I have written. Reviews help me out a lot with planning the next chapter. :D


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